The present invention relates to heat-dissipating devices for electronic components, and more particularly, to a heat-dissipating device for use with an electronic component for dissipating heat generated by the electronic component.
Current electronic components, such as CPUs or semiconductor packages used in computers or servers, have a high manipulation speed. Thus, when the electronic component is executed under full load, the temperature of its surface will be rather high even up to above 100xc2x0 C. In order to dissipate heat generated by the electronic component, various heat dissipation modules, such as fans or coolers, are mounted with the electronic components for dissipating the heat generated from the electronic components, so as to prevent the electronic components from being damaged due to overheat.
However, the technology of making electronic components is advanced very rapidly. A more advanced electronic component can be developed within a short period of time. Since the advanced electronic components usually produce a greater amount of heat, the original module for heat dissipation will be insufficient to efficiently dissipate the heat generated from the electronic components. Thus, it is usually required to design a new module to solve the heat dissipation problem. However, provision of a new heat dissipation module always brings additional research and manufacturing costs for the manufacturers. As to the customers, when the electronic components of their computers or network servers which use the original modules are to be upgraded, the overheat problem, which results in the component damage or life span reduction, will still be encountered. At the same time, since electronic devices are developed toward a miniaturization trend, the space for accommodating the motherboard on which electronic components are mounted and the heat dissipation modules will thus become more limited than before. Therefore, it is quite important to develop a flexible module that can increase heat transfer capacity immediately without compromising the high speed requirement for an advanced electronic component, and can thus eliminate the need of making a new heat dissipation module for coping with increased heat dissipation concern when the upgrade of the electronic component is required.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a primary objective of the present invention is to provide a heat-dissipating device for an electronic component, that can fit various heat dissipation requirements, allowing the manufacturing cost for the heat-dissipating device to be reduced.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a heat-dissipating device for an electronic component, that is attachable one with another and is convenient in assembly.
A further objective of the invention is to provide a heat-dissipating device for an electronic component, that can increase the heat transfer area and the heat dissipation efficiency simply by increasing the number of the heat-dissipating devices that are attached one with another.
A still further objective of the invention is to provide a heat-dissipating device for an electronic component, that is simple in structure and can be easily mounted with the electronic component.
In order to achieve the above and other objectives, a heat-dissipating device for an electronic component is proposed by the present invention, which comprises: a main body adapted to be mounted on an electronic component, the main body being formed with at least a joining portion; at least a heat pipe detachably coupled to the joining portion in a manner that, at least a portion of the heat pipe is exposed to the exterior of the main body; and at least a heat-dissipating block detachably coupled to the exposed portion of the heat pipe, whereby the heat generated from the electronic component can be transferred via the main body and the heat pipe to the heat-dissipating block.
The joining portion of the main body is configured as a short cylinder, and formed with a central bore that extends into the main body, with a connecting portion provide at a periphery of the short cylinder and surrounding the central bore.
The heat pipe is configured as an elongated tube, one end of which is inserted into the main body through the central bore of the joining portion, whereas the other end of the heat pipe is exposed to outside of the main body, for being fitted with a plurality of the heat-dissipating blocks, so as to allow the heat generated from the electronic component to be rapidly transferred through the heat pipe to the heat-dissipating block for dissipation.
The heat-dissipating block is a tubular body formed at a periphery thereof with a plurality of heat sinks. One end of the tubular body is provided with a first connecting portion, and the other end thereof is formed with a second connecting portion. A plurality of the heat-dissipating blocks can be in series coupled to the heat pipe in a manner that, a first connecting portion of a heat-dissipating block is joined with a second connecting portion of another adjacent heat-dissipating block, so as to increase the heat transfer area for allowing better performances of heat dissipation.
Further, the heat sinks formed on the heat-dissipating block are not limited to particular shape, number and extension direction as shown in the drawing. For example, the heat sinks can be configured as fin or radiating shape, as long as the configuration is capable of enlarging the heat transfer area as desired in the invention.
The connection between adjacent heat-dissipating blocks can be achieved by adopting any conventional connection means; nevertheless, it is preferred that the heat-dissipating blocks are attached to each other by means of threads, so as to optimize heat transfer area and heat dissipation efficiency.
Moreover, among the heat-dissipating blocks coupled to the heat pipe, a heat-dissipating block positioned closest to the main body has its second connecting portion threadedly joined with the connecting portion of the main body; whereas a heat-dissipating block located farthest from the main body has its first connecting portion threadedly engaged with a threaded portion of a nut. The nut is then fixed by using a shoe, so as to firmly hold the heat-dissipating blocks coupled to the heat pipe in position.
The number of the joining portion formed on the main body is not limited to one, but can be more as necessary. Also, the length and number of the heat pipe, and the number of the heat-dissipating block coupled to the heat piper, are not particularly restricted. Besides straight tube structure, the heat pipe can be designed in other shapes, for example, a tube bent by 45, 90 or other degrees. It is understood that, the foregoing elements can be flexible in arrangement and design so as to be properly incorporated with a computer or server, and to optimize the effectiveness of heat dissipation.
Furthermore, the central bore of the joining portion can be made to penetrate the main body, allowing the heat pipe, that is inserted into the main body through the central bore, to expose its both ends to the exterior of the main body, so as to provide more flexibility of element arrangement on a motherboard.
Alternatively, besides insertion of the heat pipe into the main body, the heat pipe can be integrally formed with the main body at one side or two opposite sides of the main body. In combination of any arrangement and design of the main body incorporated with the heat pipe, the heat-dissipating device of the invention can be suitably applied to various electronic components, especially to a computer or server demanding for high efficacy of heat dissipation.